Meet actor who was once a carpenter, became a daily wage worker, now one of India's highest-paid actor, he is...

India.com

25-04-2025

Actor Rajinikanth, who has made his mark in acting from the South Film Industry to Bollywood. Rajini has ruled the cinema for the last 5 decades, very few people know about the actor that Rajinikanth was a bus conductor before acting. Here we are giving you information about both Rajinikanth's personal and professional life.
Rajinikanth, who lost his mother in childhood, was born on 12 December 1950 in a Marathi family in Bangalore and has achieved this position today through hard work. Rajinikanth's real name was Shivaji Rao Gaikwad. His childhood was spent in great poverty. His mother died in his childhood. The responsibility of running the house was on his shoulders.
To run the house, Rajinikanth even worked as a coolie. Later, he also worked as a conductor in Bangalore Transport Services. However, his childhood dream was to become an actor, so along with working as a conductor, he also started some stage shows. Meanwhile, an advertisement for a film institute was published in a newspaper, which provided courses for working in films. Rajinikanth talked about this at home, although he did not get support from the family due to the poor condition of the family.
His acting journey started with the help of a friend. Later, Rajinikanth's friend Raj Bahadur helped him and got him admitted to an acting institute. This is where his acting journey started. Rajinikanth started his acting career with Kannada plays. There, his acting as Duryodhana of the Mahabharata was highly praised. Rajinikanth had studied Tamil language before entering the Tamil film industry. His first film was Apoorva Raagangal. Kamal Haasan was also seen in this film.
Many people know that there was a time when Rajinikanth thought of quitting films, but his family did not let him do so. Apart from Tamil and Telugu, Rajinikanth was also not behind in spreading his charm in Bollywood. Rajinikanth started his career in Bollywood with the film Andha Kanoon and after this he also acted in many Bollywood films like 'Bhagwan Dada', 'Aatank Hi Aatank' and 'Chaalbaaz'. If we talk about his South Indian films, then he entered the world of acting in 1975 with the Tamil film 'Apoorva Raagangal'. After this, he worked in superhit films like 'Billu', 'Muthu', 'Bashaha', 'Shivaji' and 'Enthiran'
Apart from acting, he had also considered joining politics, but later in December last year, citing ill health, he cancelled his plans to enter electoral politics. He had said that he would not enter politics due to ill health. However, Kamal Haasan is trying his best to get him to join politics. Recently, he also met Rajini and appealed to him to support his party.